USC football: WR Woods gets on the board

Robert Woods stays late in the film room. He studies DVDs at home on most nights. He hangs out with his playbook during his free time, and he asks USC quarterback Matt Barkley questions. A lot of questions.

Woods, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound true freshman with a 4.4-second time in the 40-yard dash and a 33-inch vertical leap, is the No. 20 Trojans' starting wide receiver and kick returner. His college career has spanned all of three games, and he has already jumped to lead the team in all-purpose yards (132.0 ypg).

At practice Thursday Woods snatched a Barkley pass by cutting inside CB Shareece Wright. Later Woods plucked another Barkley bullet from the sky, reaching over his shoulder, and darting toward the end zone. The Woods-Barkley connection looked as though it has been years, not months, in the making.

"He's a great target," said Barkley, who aims to show a more substantial passing game this Saturday at Washington State in the Pac-10 opener. "Good hands, good speed, everything you want in a receiver."

His slippery moves and explosive bursts that separate him from coverage have helped him collect his team-second 11 catches for 143 yards, with a long grab of 40 yards. He has logged long hours with Barkley after practice, fine-tuning their timing and determining “what we call landmarks or places where I like to catch the ball on what route,” Woods said. “He knows right where to put it. I just need to make sure to be in the right place.”

His prodigious start couldn't have come at a better time for the Trojans. Woods said he didn't expect to see this much action – or production – this early in his career and still believes he has plenty to learn.

“I'd like to read defenses better, like Matt (Barkley does), because I've picked up a false start that way,” said Woods, who grew up in Carson admiring the play of former USC receiver Steve Smith and current NFL receiver Chad Johnson. “I'd also like to master the routes to the point where I'm catching the ball with my hands and not my body because I took one there today from Matt and my chest still hurts! But I'd like to get the blocking right and the routes perfect so I don't mess up again.”

Again?

Woods ran a route too short against the Gophers on a third-and-15 situation and made a 10-yard catch “that would have gone for first-down distance if I had run the route right,” he admitted.

His vision, anticipation and patience in the return game have allowed him to average 25.3 yards (third-best in the Pac-10) on 10 returns, including the 97-yarder for a third-quarter touchdown in this past Saturday's victory at Minnesota. That was the longest kick return by a Trojan since Chad Morton went 98 yards for a touchdown against Purdue in 1998 and the first scoring kickoff return by a USC freshman since Reggie Bush did so against UCLA in 2003.

“I can only do so much with what I tell him, just like a coach, but he (Woods) has done a lot to get to where he is both in film study and just getting to know the offense and me as well,” said Barkley. “He has done a good job of listening to advice and applying that to his play.”

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